NFL

Peyton Manning: I Helped Create The Man Who Took My Job

According to Peyton Manning, he has nobody to blame but himself for Andrew Luck becoming the number one pick in this year’s draft. If only his Manning quarterback camp wasn’t so awesome, we would never have experienced the awkward nightmare that was his departure from Indy.

Luck and Manning were in the same city yesterday when the former Colts QB visited Indianapolis to attend a fundraiser. At the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent, Manning talked with reporters about Luck, who began rookie workouts this week.

“He’s a great player, a great kid and he’ll fit in perfectly… I reach out to most of the rookie quarterbacks because so many of them have been to our camp at the Manning Passing Academy, so I’ve always kind of kept up with them. Andrew attended our camp and that’s what I think is really the reason he was the first pick, because of all the great coaching he got down there.”

So, like some sort of accidental Dr. Frankenstein, Peyton Manning created a monster. Without the Manning camp, says Manning, Luck is not number one pick material. If Luck hadn’t been number one pick material, perhaps Indy would have reconsidered cutting Manning loose in favor of his young successor (or, actually, just grabbed RG3).

Indeed, without Manning’s success and subsequent ability to start his own camp, where would Luck be today? Some might say in pretty much the same spot, since with his skill and physical attributes he could have gone to another acclaimed camp. But it’s much more poetic (and ironic) this way.

Let this be a lesson to all athletes, or professionals in any field: don’t help your younger counterparts, unless you want them to run you out of a job. Or, help them, but then tout your own role in it later.

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